Affordable Healthcare Act deadline looms

WOOD RIVER — Phone calls regarding open enrollment mandated by the Affordable Care Act started rolling into community educators, as the deadline to sign up looms.

Monday is the final day to register for healthcare under the act, also known as Obamacare, but people can still contact Kara Hughes, an in-person counselor community educator for assistance.

She will be available from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. Sunday at 618-296-6098.

Hughes is one of six people the Madison County Health Department hired to help people enroll at libraries.

“We just try to make it to every major city in the county because we know that everybody does not have the ability to meet us in Wood River,” Hughes said, referring to the location of the county’s health department.

She and her colleagues helped residents complete 909 applications as of the week of March 12.

The county also gave a total of 4,106 people a thorough understanding of the information at healthcare.gov, as well as helping a combined 14,000 people at events including university health fairs, presentations and appointments.

About 6 million people have enrolled across America.

Hughes recommends residents meet with a counselor to enroll even though they can get coverage on their own at healthcare.gov.

“Just because the counselor can walk you through it and do it for you,” Hughes said about her and her colleagues who have been educating people full-time since October.

They witnessed a low interest in their services at first as the county relied on state media to get the word out.

However, appointments have picked up in a big way.

During a phone conversation with The Telegraph, Hughes said she had missed ten calls that day.

“From March 15 until now we have been fully booked,” she said.

Unenrolled citizens will face penalties if they do not have health insurance by Monday.

According to healthcare.gov, anyone without coverage will have to pay a penalty of $95 per adult, $47.50 per child or 1 percent of income — whichever is higher. The fee increases every year.

People are considered covered if they have Medicare, Medicaid, Children’s Health Insurance Program (CHIP), any job-based plan, any plan they bought themselves, COBRA, retiree coverage, TRICARE, VA health coverage or some other kinds of health coverage.

Anyone with Medicare is considered covered and do not have to make any changes. People cannot use the website to buy a supplemental or dental plan.

Open enrollment for 2015 is from Nov. 15, 2014, to Jan. 15, 2015. People who enroll by March 31, 2014, will not have to pay the fee for any month before coverage began.